Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Tanner’s body slumped on top of hers. Choking on smoke, Jade shoved up and tried to push him to the side.
But in the next instant, Tanner was tossed away from her—well, tossed as far as he could go with those cuffs locking them. She tumbled after him, but was brought up short by the iron-hard grip on her waist.
She’d know that too-hard grip anywhere. Especially in her nightmares.
“Hello, Jade.”
The flames were flickering around her. She choked down the ash and forced herself to look up and into Brandt’s blazing eyes. “H-how did you?—”
“Plain, old-fashioned explosives.” His rather boyish grin widened. “Humans do come up with some good inventions, you know.”
Tanner groaned.
Brandt’s smile vanished. He stared at the cuffs, then reached down and tried to yank them apart. His shifter strength would have shredded normal cuffs, but in this case…
“N-not gonna work,” Tanner managed as he shoved what looked like a dislocated shoulder back into place. “You’re not…gettin’ her away…from me.”
Brandt’s eyes narrowed. “Wanna bet, brother?”
Az, where are you? He must have heard the explosion. He’d be rushing in, any minute, with his gun literally blazing. He’d better be. She just had to stall Brandt long enough for her angel to arrive.
“They’re Other -proof,” she whispered to Brandt. “You have to find the key to unlock them.” She tried to look weak and defenseless. While he searched for the key, Az could have more time to burst in and?—
Brandt just laughed. “I don’t have time for a fucking key.” Claws burst from his fingertips. “I’ll just cut off his damn hand.”
He lifted up his claws and sliced down.
“No!” Jade screamed as she dove for Tanner. She slammed into him, and they rolled across the floor. Rolled, until they came up against the still form of Cody.
The demon’s neck was twisted. His eyes closed.
And the sickeningly sweet scent of flowers hung in the air around him.
Jade sucked in a fast breath. “Az!” Jade screamed his name as loud as she could. “Get that angel ass of yours in here!” Hurry!
Brandt’s fingers sank into her hair, and he wrenched her head up. “The angel’s not coming.”
Her blood chilled. The screams from the bar had nearly died away now. She hoped that meant all of the humans had gotten out.
As for Az…
“Did I ever tell you,” Brandt asked as he tilted up her head and forced her to meet his gaze, “just how my father killed my mother?”
She didn’t want to know this story.
“First, he cut off her wings.”
Like Brandt had cut off Marna’s wings?
“Then he ground them up until they were the finest dust. It felt like silk on my fingers.”
She swallowed the bile in her throat. He’d touched that dust?
His expression tightened as he stared at her. “I learned then that wings are full of magic. Full of power.”
She did not like where this was going.
“When I saw the pretty little angel coming for you in the swamp,” he said, “I knew I had to get her wings. I just couldn’t let that power go to waste. I took some feathers after I cut her wings away, then later sent my pack back to collect anything that remained.”
It felt like he was about to rip her hair right out of her head. “Let me go!”
But he didn’t. Not even when Tanner lunged up at him. Brandt just drove his fist into Tanner’s jaw and the shifter fell back as his eyes sagged closed.
“That fine powder—some call it Angel Dust. It can kill demons, and it can trap angels.”
No.
His lips kicked up in a grin, and she knew that Brandt was enjoying her fear.
“If you surround them with the dust, angels can’t move. They’re trapped in a prison, one made of their own power.” His grin slipped away as shadows chased into his eyes. “My father trapped my mother in the dust. Then he used his claws to cut out her heart.” He leaned toward her and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Just like I’ll cut out your Fallen’s heart. See, he’s not rushing to the rescue because I trapped him in the dust.”
Fear was choking her. Not Az.
“Unless you come with me right now, he’s dead.” He eased away from her. “Come with me, and I won’t take his heart tonight.”
He could be bluffing. Totally bullshitting about the Angel Dust.
But his eyes told her he wasn’t. And if Az had been free, he would have been in that room by now. He would have come to help her.
“D-don’t …” Jade made sure her voice held a weak, trembly edge. Brandt always felt stronger when she was weak. She wanted him to think he was in control. Right until the moment she ripped that control away from him. “Don’t hurt Az.”
She caught the faint hardening of his eyes and knew she’d made a mistake. He always hurt those she cared about.
Jade reached over Tanner’s body and fumbled in his pockets. He groaned beneath her, and his eyes began to open. “Jade?”
Her fingers curled around the key.
“Stay down,” she breathed, but she knew Brandt would hear. With his shifter ears, there’d be no way for him to miss her order.
She pulled back. Her hands were shaking as she unlocked the cuff on her wrist. She dropped the key onto the floor.
Brandt caught her arm and yanked her away from Tanner. His gaze darted between them.
“Don’t,” Jade said, voice hardening despite her efforts to play weak.
But Brandt simply smiled. “Death should have come for him long before.” His claws sliced down as Jade yelled and grabbed at his arms.
Tanner lunged up in the same instant. His hands caught Brandt’s wrists, and he held those razor-sharp claws away from his face.
Fury beat at Jade. Brandt had taken so much from her. Too much. “No more,” she gritted out and the fire seemed to burn beneath her skin. Burn, burn… Her fingers heated where she touched Brandt.
He slowly turned his head to look at her.
She lifted her hands and stumbled back. They were so hot they burned. I’m burning. “No. More!” Jade yelled and a ball of fire shot from her fingers—and flew right at Brandt. The fire slammed into his chest and the scent of burning flesh stung her nose.
He fell down. The flames ate at his flesh, and Brandt screamed.
She grabbed for Tanner and hauled him to his feet. “Get Cody!” That demon had better be alive. He’d saved her before, and now they’d damn well save him.
Tanner nodded and hurried toward his brother. The cuff banged against his wrist as he lifted Cody and rushed for the door.
Jade followed on their heels, moving as quickly as she could?—
“No,” Brandt’s growl. His fingers, blistered, singed, curled around her wrist, and she felt the lick of heat scorch her from his touch. “You’re not getting away from me that easily.”
Body tensing, Tanner glanced back at her.
“Get him out of here!” Jade yelled at Tanner. She could summon more fire. She could attack Brandt again. Dammit, she wouldn’t be afraid.
Not anymore.
Tanner slipped away with Cody.
At least they’re safe.
Brandt yanked her against his chest. The fire had melted away his shirt and the flames had charred his skin.
But—but that skin was healing before her eyes.
“Aren’t you full of surprises?” he murmured as he bent his head toward hers. His breath, carrying the scent of ash, blew lightly over her face. “Since when can my human play so well with fire?”
“Since someone was willing to risk his life for me. Since he gave me life.” And hadn’t just tried try to destroy everything she had.
The faint lines around Brandt’s eyes tightened. “You think he’s so damn special, don’t you? But I know what he’s done. I followed the blood. He’s hurt you.”
“No.” Her chin lifted. “Never him. He wouldn’t. Az isn’t like?—”
He lifted her up, and her toes left the floor. “Me?” Brandt finished, the word a savage snarl.
She nodded.
“So I’m the fucking bastard?”
Yeah, he was.
Brandt shook his head as if denying something to himself. To her? “You loved me once.”
This was it. The moment that she’d known would come. Jade stared him in the eyes, refused to let the fear take her, and she said the words she knew would break him. “And now I love him.”
She expected an eruption of rage. An attack. Jade would take the pain. It would buy Tanner and Cody the time to flee. Buy Az time to get out of that Angel Dust trap.
But Brandt didn’t erupt. He pressed his forehead against hers. “That’s a mistake.” His lips feathered over hers. Gentleness that she knew cloaked a killing rage. She could feel his fury, feel it even as?—
He slammed her head into the nearest wall.
“You can’t love a dead man.” His whisper followed her into the darkness.
Flames danced around Az. Bright, dark, gold, and red. The fire was so hot that it scorched his skin.
“I can’t believe this is happening again,” Sam snarled from the trap just beside Az. “This is it—my next club will damn well be fireproof, no matter how many witches I have to hire to enchant the place.”
The sprinklers installed in the ceiling of Sunrise had shot on moments before, but they couldn’t stop the blaze. Especially since the fire just flared higher and higher because the shifters were pouring liquor everywhere. Soaking the place and growling in triumph when the flames burned brighter.
Those flames were rushing across the wooden floor toward Az now.
So close, but not close enough. Not yet.
Come closer.
Through the smoke and fire, he caught sight of Tanner’s tall form. The shifter was carrying something—someone? Someone who wasn’t moving.
“Jade!” Her name burst from his lips, but Tanner didn’t slow down. The shifter swiped out at two attackers who lunged for him, and then he raced outside and away from the flames.
“I’m sorry, Azrael.” Bastion’s voice came from beside him and barely rose over the crackle of the fire.
“Don’t be sorry,” Az snapped right back at him. This wasn’t the end for him. “Just get ready to collect all the souls I’m about to send your way.”
Then he saw her. Brandt walked right through the fire, and he had Jade held tightly in his arms. Brandt’s gaze met Az’s.
No. For an instant, it seemed that even the flames stilled.
“I have to do it.” Bastion’s voice was tense. “You know there’s no choice.”
Az’s fist slammed into the magical trap. “Get me out of here, Bastion!”
Sam was dead quiet next to him.
The flames burned higher.
Brandt stalked toward him. Jade’s eyes were closed, and her head sagged against his chest.
Bastard. I will rip you apart.
Brandt lifted Jade and positioned her so that she hung over his right shoulder. The bastard began, “I had wanted her to watch…”
“And I want you to beg for death.” Death’s ready for you.
“But I guess we don’t always get what we want.” Brandt’s claws burst from his fingertips. He lifted his hand.
And slammed right against the invisible wall of the cage that had been forged by Angel Dust.
“Dumb asshole!” Sam’s voice called out. “You’re part angel, too. If we are inside the circle, it keeps us in, and you can’t cross it, not unless the line gets broken.”
Brandt’s gaze dropped to the fine line of dust on the floor. When he looked back up, Az had the gun in his hand. He aimed it right at Brandt’s face. “I’m betting these bullets can get out though,” Az said. He bet they could get out and kill Brandt where he stood.
Brandt didn’t hesitate. In a flash, he hauled Jade in front of him.
Her eyes opened slowly, and, with growing fear, she stared down the barrel of the gun that Az had pointed right at her.
“Go ahead,” Brandt taunted him. “Kill me, but kill her, too.”
Bastion had vanished. The other panther shifters raced for the door. The flames just grew bigger and hotter with every moment that passed.
“Az.” He saw her lips move but no sound slipped from Jade’s mouth. Her gaze held his. So deep, so intense.
He lowered the gun.
Brandt hauled her back. The grip he had around her throat had his claws far too close to her skin.
“Don’t hurt her,” Az ordered, voice booming.
But Brandt didn’t answer.
“ Dammit, don’t hurt her! ”
“I wasn’t just using you, Az.” Jade’s faint words were being swallowed by the flames. He had to fight to hear her as she said, “I was loving you.”
Then the flames flared higher. Brandt took her away.
“I am sorry.” Bastion’s whisper filled his ears as the angel appeared once more.
Now Az knew just why the angel was apologizing.
“No!” Az clawed at the invisible wall, but it wouldn’t give. The magic was too strong. The fire burned.
And Jade was gone.
The shifters had split, running away into the darkness as soon as they escaped the growing inferno that was Sunrise.
Brandt moved quickly with Jade and her body bounced and ached with each step since she was tossed over his shoulder like a damn sack. Snarling, Jade kicked out at him. Her nails dug into his back.
He didn’t slow down.
They rounded the corner. Sirens wailed in the distance. Those fire trucks damn well needed to hurry.
“Fire won’t…kill him,” she managed to gasp out. Her hair dangled over her face as all the blood rushed to her head. “He’ll come after you.” Flames wouldn’t stop Az for long.
“I’m rather counting on that.”
Cocky bastard.
Another turn. This time, she recognized the street. Hard not to recognize Bourbon Street. Partygoers strolled around laughing, and beads crunched beneath Brandt’s boots as he stalked forward.
“Help me!” Jade screamed through the fall of her hair.
She managed to temporarily shove that hair out of her way and saw two men glance her way. Oh, come on, even during Mardi Gras, it wasn’t cool to just let some asshole run away with a struggling woman over his shoulder.
The men realized that. She heard the thud of their footsteps rushing toward them.
“Hey, man, let her go?—”
Brandt growled at them. A deep, inhuman growl. “Stay away or die.”
She had no doubt that he was flashing fangs.
But the men didn’t back away.
“Look, freak,” one snarled right back, “let that lady?—”
Brandt tossed him away with one hand.
The other would-be hero’s feet beat a hasty retreat.
Brandt dropped her to the ground. As she scrambled to her knees, he stared down at her with eyes that glowed with his fury—and with the power of the beast inside him. “Call for help again, and I’ll cut the head off the first dumb fool who comes to your rescue.”
He would.
Brandt grabbed her arm. “Let’s go, baby . ”
The flames licked their way across the floor and slowly destroyed everything in their path. Too slowly.
Sam alternately snarled and swore as the heat and smoke thickened in the room.
Az didn’t move. Not now. He just waited. The flames only had to come a bit closer. Just a bit.
The fire crackled over the edges of the Angel Dust. The dust ignited and flared in a blue-white flame.
And the prison was broken.
Az lunged from the trap and shoved out his hands. The flames lanced his skin, but he ignored the fire and pushed out with his own power. A bitter wind swept through Sunrise, howling like a wolf, and the flames died in an instant.
Slowly, his head turned to the right. Toward the door that Brandt had used when he took Jade away.
Bastion was gone. The angel had better not be near her.
Az took a step forward.
“Uh, yeah, brother? ” Sam’s voice stopped him. “Before you head out to kick ass and save the day, do you think you can do me a favor and get me the hell out of here ?”
He glanced back. Sam stood with his arms crossed over his chest and managed to look both pissed and bored.
Az shook his head. “You’ll just try to stop me.”
Sam’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“It’s my fight.” He took a breath. Tasted ash and death. His eyes closed. “Goodbye, Sam.”
His brother screamed his name, but it was too late. Az used his enhanced speed to rush out of the bar and to whip right past the dazed-looking firefighters who stared up at the smoldering scene.
He raced forward two blocks and only stopped when he was sure no humans were around. “Bastion!” The angel had better heed his summons. “Get down here, now !” Az might have been kicked out of heaven, but he still possessed plenty of power.
He’d ruled the death angels, and even those still dwelling in heaven knew to fear him.
Wind blew lightly against his face. Not wind—air stirred by wings. Bastion’s form appeared before him. No expression was on the angel’s face.
“Where is she?” Az demanded.
Bastion gazed silently back at him.
“If she’s in the damn Book of Death…” His book—once, he’d been the one to note the names and the passages of lives. But those names hadn’t mattered to him. Collecting souls had been his duty. Jade mattered. “If Jade’s in that book, then that means someone is keeping track of her pretty much twenty-four, seven.”
The angel didn’t deny or confirm that charge.
Az grabbed Bastion and shoved him against the alley’s brick wall. He yanked out his weapon and put the gun to Bastion’s heart. “It’s loaded with brimstone. I won’t shoot your stomach this time. I’ll shoot you right in the heart.”
Bastion swallowed. “No, you won’t. You won’t shoot at all.”
Testing him? The angel should know better.
“You…of all the angels…you understand duty.” Bastion didn’t struggle in his hold. Just stood there as the barrel of the gun dug into his chest. “You know what must be done.”
Az’s finger tightened on the trigger. “Tell me where she is or get ready to say goodbye to heaven.”
Bastion shook his head and held his ground. “It’s…you I’m protecting. You need to let her go.”
Gravel crunched behind them. “I’ve got his scent,” Tanner said. “Forget the angel. I can lead you to Brandt.”
Az tensed. “What about Cody?” He knew the being that Tanner had carried out of Sunrise must have been the demon doctor.
“He’ll make it.” Though Tanner didn’t sound so confident. “Demons can heal from just about anything.”
Az stared into Bastion’s gaze. “If I let you go, you’ll try to take her.”
“No.” Bastion shook his head. “My touch doesn’t work on her anymore, remember? I won’t be the angel who takes her life. The one who loves her will be.”
What? He frowned at the angel, lost. Then understanding sank in. Understanding and horror.
He spun away. “Get me to her, now, ” he barked at Tanner.
Tanner, fangs bared, nodded.
As they rushed away, Az could feel his control ripping. He had to get to Jade before it was too late.
I was loving you.
And he…had he been loving her?
Hold on, Jade. Hold. On.
Brandt took her to the cemetery. The rest of his shifters appeared from behind the heavy, white tombs, coming out like ghosts as they surrounded her.
The broken tomb that Az had fallen on so long before lay in pieces just feet from them all.
“This is where he dies,” Brandt promised. “Heather told me about this place. How he fell.” His lips curled as he glanced up at the starlit sky. “It seems only fitting that I send him to hell at this same spot.”
She rubbed her arms. A chill was in the air. One that beat down on her. “He’s stronger than you are.”
Brandt’s smirk said that he doubted that. “I kicked his ass once before.”
“Only because he didn’t know what you were then.” Az hadn’t been prepared for Brandt’s strength.
Brandt’s gaze cut to her. “And just what am I?”
Evil. If only she’d seen it from the beginning. “Half angel, half beast.”
The others were transforming around them. Changing with the pop and snap of bones as the moon shone down on them.
Brandt held up his hand and stared at the claws that burst from his fingertips. “I always thought it was a curse, having her blood in me.”
She edged away from him.
“My father said it made me weak. Made me too softhearted on our prey.”
“Yes, well, your father was a dick.” She needed to find a weapon. Her gaze darted around the area. Those panthers would be done with their shift soon. She needed to attack before then. They were always at their weakest during those moments of transformation.
There.
One of the tombs had been separated from the others by an old-fashioned, wrought-iron fence.
“My father was the most vicious shifter I’ve ever seen.” Brandt rolled his shoulders. “But you put him in the ground for me.”
She stumbled toward the fence, deliberately tripping so that her hands had to fly out and catch onto the iron for support. Slowly, she turned toward him. Her hands locked around one of the posts. “I didn’t do that for you. He was trying to rape me. I killed him for me .”
“Fair enough.” A pause. Brandt’s head tilted to the right as he studied her. “I killed your parents for me .”
Bile rose in her throat, and her hand tightened around the fence post. Jade kept her eyes on Brandt even as she pulled on that post. She thought she heard the iron groan, and it seemed to bend in her hand.
Oh, please, angel blood, don’t fail me now. Because that blood seemed to be giving her the strength she needed to get this makeshift weapon.
“I knew you’d go back to them eventually. Once you realized what I was…” He lifted his hands, and the moonlight glinted off his claws. “You’d run away like a scared little human.”
Because she had been a scared little human. What was so wrong with that? A seventeen-year-old, scared girl.
“I had to make sure you had no one to run to. So I killed them.” He shrugged. “I made it quick, though, if that makes you feel better.”
Sick freak. “You’re as crazy as your father was!”
He lunged at her and wrapped his hands around her throat. “No,” his voice was lethally soft. “I’m not.”
She didn’t speak. Mostly because she couldn’t. Brandt was crushing her windpipe.
He leaned his forehead against hers. He’d done that move often in the old days, back when they’d first started dating. Pressed his forehead against hers. A gentle, almost affectionate gesture. Only back then, he hadn’t been choking her when he leaned in so close.
“I don’t want to be like this,” Brandt whispered so softly she almost didn’t hear him. “But I just can’t stop myself.” He sounded…lost.
And, for one instant, he was the boy she’d met. The boy with the sad eyes and wistful smile. The boy who watched her like he was watching a rainbow.
The boy she’d loved.
Not the monster she feared.
Except the boy was strangling her. Jade’s left hand pulled away from the fence, and she clawed at his hold on her throat.
Brandt blinked, and the past faded from his eyes even as his hands fell away from her. “We’re going to start fresh. Get the hell away from the South and do things right.”
She sucked in a couple of deep gulps of air. “It’s…too late for that.” Surely he knew that. “I don’t love you, Brandt.”
He stiffened.
Part of the fence gave way but she didn’t lift it up. Not yet.
“You think you love him?” Disgust tightened his face.
“Yes.” She just wished that she’d told Az sooner. She’d been afraid to trust anyone else after Brandt. After being so blind, Jade had been terrified that she’d make another mistake with a man.
But Az wasn’t just any man. He wasn’t a man, period.
Her Fallen. Her lover.
Hers.
“How will you love him when he’s dead?”
She shook her head. “He’s not dying.” A smile curved her lips. She’d been waiting for this moment ever since she’d stood over her parents’ graves. “You are.” She swung up with the chunk of broken iron and slammed it into the side of his head. There was a loud thud, and he went down.
She raised the iron over her head. She’d broken off the top of the fence, so the sharp point would be perfect for driving right into his heart. “Tell your dad I said hi?—”
The panthers were snarling.
Jade froze, then looked up.
Oh, hell. They’d finished their shift from men to beasts.
The panther pack leapt into the air and attacked.